Filmjitsu!

Episode 60 – Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2

In honor of the birth of Mike’s first baby, John decided to prepare him by making him review Bob Clark’s infantile outing Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2 . The guys then rattle off their Bottom Five Babies and provide Staff Picks. Also don’t forget to check out the Production Stills section for photographic evidence of Mike’s comments about the Big Kahuna’s Lair and Willy Wonka’s Factory.

Congrats Mike!!!

A couple of months ago John passed along a film recommendation to me, and I did what I always do in this situation, ignored it.  Far too many times has John sent me down the path of Blood: The Last Vampire or tried to pass off a direct-to-video reject as a lost gem.  So when he told me that I should check out the documentary Catfish – and that he couldn’t really tell me anything about it – you can imagine my skepticism.  Then it happened.  I began hearing about this film from other sources.  Trusted sources.  Decidedly un-Carmichael sources.  So I tossed it in my Netflix queue and waited.  The other day it showed up in the mailbox and threw it in.

Catfish is a remarkable film.  It centers around Nev, a 20-something New York photographer who has started a friendship with a family in Michigan that he met through Facebook.  Apparently the young daughter is quite the little artist and has done some paintings of Nev’s photographs.  Nev’s buddies decided to document this burgeoning new friendship and start the camera rolling.  Shortly thereafter Nev begins talking wit the older sister Megan and an internet romance is born.  However as time wears on Nev and his friends begin to suspect that all is not as it seems, so they pack up their cameras and fly off to Michigan in search of the truth….and I’ll stop here.  John was right.  The less you know about Catfish the better off you are.

The real controversy with this documentary is in it’s authenticity.  With the release of the film Nev and his friends have been very thoroughly interrogated about whether any of this really happened.  It all seems a little too convenient.  Much like the Oscar nominated documentary from last year, Exit Through the Gift Shop , people have questioned where the line between reality and fantasy begins to blur.  Some have labeled it a downright hoax.

I think hoax is far too strong a word.  Honestly, I think whether it’s real or fake is absolutely irrelevant and doesn’t interest me in the slightest.  All I want is a film that tells me a story and makes me think.  Catfish is certainly successful there.  In fact, blurring the lines between reality and fantasy is exactly what this film wants us to think about.  Is it possible that the filmmakers played with the narrative a bit to make the sequence of events seem more organic than they were?  Maybe.  But who cares?  Personally that doesn’t diminish my enjoyment in the slightest.  What I got were characters that made me think about who I am and the ways I’m connect with my world.  We’ve all become a part of this internet community.  Facebook, Twitter, and even the dreaded nexus of hate – movie message boards – are a part of the identity we choose to present.

Don’t spoil Catfish for yourself.  Go into it with as little information about the plot as you can.  Let the film surprise you.  The ending is something special, but not in a “Bruce Willis was dead the whole time” kind of way.  It doesn’t have a twist ending.  It just goes somewhere that you don’t expect to end up.  I think it wants us to wonder about our own lives.  We are all connected and yet many of us are still alone.  Busy New Yorkers or Michigan families, we all crave the same thing.  Even if the places we look and our methods of finding it are completely different,  we’re still on the same journey.

I think Catfish is well worth its 86 minutes.  Is it a hoax?  I don’t think any more so than the relationships we’ve all built with each other online.  In our daily lives are we all exactly like we portray ourselves on the internet?  Do I really think John is an idiot with terrible taste in movies?  Of course not.  I love and respect John – even if busting his balls is a full time hobby.   We’re caricatures of ourselves.  This movie may well be a caricature of itself.  No matter what it is I found myself thinking about it for days afterward, and that’s all the authenticity I ask from a film.  Just tell me a story worth hearing.  Oh, and thanks John.

Mike

Filmjitsu Rating:

Episode 31 – Street Fighter

John kicks his way through a review of the Jean-Claude Van Damme mess that is Street Fighter . Mike and John then list off their Bottom Five Fighters, play a round of Surviving the Game, read some listener feedback and end it out with some solid Staff Picks.

Episode 25 – Gigli

Mike harkens back to the days of Bennifer this week with his review of Gigli starring Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez. This is followed up by Bottom Five Crooks. The guys then take a break from Matinee Deathmatch and instead play a round of 6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon before finishing up with some excellent Staff Picks.

This week’s sponsor can only be found in the Bonus Features section along with the Roger Ebert review of Gigli that Mike references during the show.